Playing a Superhero Character

As usual, superhero PCs gain access to special abilities. However, character creation involves several additional facets that characters in other genres don't usually have access to, including power shifts and origin superhero abilities. In addition, you may face really impossible tasks (challenges that go from 1 to 15 instead of 1 to 10).

Superhero types are different than types in other genres, as they are organized mainly by power level. A vigilante is basically a well-trained, well-equipped human, but a powerstar has either a single incredible power or a variety of them, making them far more than normal mortals. Thus, superhero types are given 5 ranks, each more powerful than the one before. These ranks are different from tiers, and only superheroes have them.

Skills: Refer to the Superhero Skills table for a list of skills you can choose from when creating and advancing your character. However, depending on the game, your GM might give you choices from the Fantasy Skills table and/or the Science Fiction Skills table. Your choice of background skill, and possibly the extra skill you might get if you also choose a meaningful inability, also come from the same list of genre skills.

Some of these skills are tier restricted, meaning there's a minimum tier requirement before you can become trained or specialized in them.

Superhero Skills

These skills are appropriate for games in superhero settings. When you have the option to choose skills, choose from the following. Animal care Astronomy Athletics Attacking (tier restricted) Biology Chemistry Crafting Deception Defending (tier restricted) Disguise Driving Engineering Escaping Firefighting Forensics Gathering information Geology Gymnastics Hacking Healing Heavy equipment operation History Identifying Initiative Intimidation Lockpicking Magic lore Mathematics Mechanics Mining Navigation Outdoor survival Perception Performance Persuasion Philosophy Physics Pickpocketing Piloting Plumbing Psychology Publishing Recognizing motive Religious lore Riding Scavenging Stealth Tracking

Character Species: Superhero settings usually feature Humans, whether or not your GM is using the optional species rules. Alternatively, your superpowers might come from being an alien, in which case it's not really your species that is important, but your type and focus. But given how the genre tends to draw in elements from fantasy and science fiction, alternate species may be something your GM also wants to explore.

Foci: The list of suggested superhero foci effectively includes every focus in the game, given the rambunctious, wide-open nature of the genre.

Suggested Foci for a Superhero Game

Abides in Stone Blazes With Fire Builds Allies Carries a Gun Casts Spells Changes Shape Commands Mental Powers Consorts With the Dead Controls Beasts Crafts Illusions Doesn’t Do Much Employs Magnetism Entertains Explores Fights Dirty Fights Unarmed Fights With Panache Fuses Flesh and Steel Fuses Mind and Machine Grows to Towering Heights Howls at the Moon Hunts Infiltrates Leads Masters Telekinesis Masters Weaponry Moves Like the Wind Never Says Die Performs Feats of Strength Quells Evil Reveres a Supernatural Force Rides the Lightning Sneaks Through the Shadows Solves Mysteries Speaks for the Land Stands Like a Bastion Strikes With Mystic Might Talks to Machines Tends to the Wounded Walks Through Walls Wears a Sheen of Ice Works for a Living

Superheroes and Equipment: Many superheroes don't worry about mundane equipment. If characters have devices that they regularly use as weapons or that are the source of their power - such as an advanced suit of armor or a utility belt filled with gimmicks - these should be represented by abilities as if they were inherent powers. Thus, a gadget-using hero might be a Crimefighter who has the Amazing Tools origin superhero ability. Or they could emulate the effect by adapting the Casts Spells focus, with each "spell" represented by a gadget.

In other words, from a story point of view, your character might be all about equipment, but from a game mechanics point of view, it's not equipment at all - it's part of your character. If an armored hero is ever caught without their suit of armor, they have no special powers other than their skills, but that's entirely true to the genre, so it works.

However, you may care what equipment you have as part of your secret identity; if so, see Secret Identity Equipment Bundle.

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Secret Identity Equipment Bundle

You might have standard equipment as part of a secret identity. If so, choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

Appropriate clothing, a raincoat, a used vehicle, a smartphone, a smartwatch or wireless earbuds, a laptop or tablet computer, a basic purse or wallet, a sticky notes pad and pen, a tin of breath fresheners, a bottle of painkillers, and a penknife. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

Manifest Cyphers: These are possible, in the form of high-tech gadgets, strange serums, power jewels, and alien technology.

Wound Rallying: Unlike in other genres, a superhero character can rally a major wound by using an action and spending 10 Might.

Wound Treatment: The superhero genre is usually heroic in the sense that fantastic things can and do happen. Using treatment to remove a wound takes a Last action for a minor wound, one minute for a moderate wound, and ten minutes for a major wound.

Currency: The currency underlying price categories in a superhero setting is whatever currency is in use in the real-world backdrop. In some games, that will be dollars; in other games, euros, pounds, or pesos.

Background Options: Each type includes suggestions for your character's background. Choose one or create your own.

Rank: Every superhero type has a rank from 1 to 5 measuring its general power level. Starting rank 1 types are close to the power level of regular starting Cypher characters; higher-rank types are significantly more powerful. Your GM will let you know which rank to use as a basis for your superhero character.

Power Shifts: Your character gains a number of power shifts depending on their rank. See Power Shifts for details.

Origin Superhero Ability: You gain an origin superhero ability at tier 1, in addition to any other ability choices you have as a tier 1 character. See Origin Superhero Abilities for the full list.

This ability choice is intended to supplement your superhero character concept in case you are missing an ability you can't get from your descriptor, type, and focus. It's not meant to augment abilities you already have, but to ensure your superhero's theme or starting power suite is complete. Rather than choosing an origin ability that doubles down on the powers you've already gained from your type and focus, choose an ability that complements your character concept or makes that concept possible.

Example: Teri wants to make a speedster character. If she chooses the Moves Like the Wind focus (which gives her various speed powers), she shouldn't also take the Incredible Velocity origin ability (which increases movement speed). She could take the Intangible origin ability (allowing her to pass through physical barriers), with the idea that her character is vibrating through walls like the Flash. Another way to build that sort of character is to take the Walks Through Walls focus and the Incredible Velocity origin ability.

Example: Bear wants to create a superhero who'd be an effective team leader. He could choose the Leads focus and the Powerful Blast origin ability to make a hero like Cyclops, or take the Unyielding Shield ability if he wants a character like Captain America.

Your character's type and focus might already cover all the powers you want. In this case, consider an origin ability like Power Cypher Use, Superhero Versatility, or Team-Up Ally.

Genre Abilities for Your Superhero Character: At tier 3, your character gains a mid-tier ability from the list of Fantasy Genre Abilities or Science Fiction Genre Abilities, and at tier 6 you gain a high-tier ability from the same lists. In addition, at tier 6, you can replace one of your mid-tier genre abilities with a different mid-tier ability.